Re: Current state of the Linux kernel on SPARC

Hi Adrian,
thank you, will do.

Is there any preferred stresstest to run?

I'll set up the machines to the end of the week and test.

UltraSparc II might be earlier, I have one Netra T1-105 sitting on my 
desk atm, just have to pin a console adaptor :)

Robin


Am 30.08.2025 um 11:51 schrieb John Paul Adrian Glaubitz:
> Hi Robin,
>
> On Sat, 2025-08-30 at 11:36 +0200, Robin Cremer wrote:
>> Thanks for the work on bisecting & getting to the bottom to the long
>> standing stability issues and the chance for stable, recent Linux Kernels.
>> Those were a long standing issue for me as I am running a few of the
>> heavily impacted systems (UltraSPARC III).
> Indeed, newer kernels were nearly unusable on UltraSPARC III.
>
>> Are there any pre-built images of the kernel available? Preferably SMP.
>> As far as I know, there are no ("Beta")-install-images yet, which
>> hinders testing a bit for me...
> Sure, here you go:
>
> https://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/sparc64/
>
> Both UP and SMP kernel packages are available. Let me know if it works for you.
>
>> I don't have a working build environment atm and am chronically short on
>> time due to work,
>> but I do have test systems for UltraSPARC I, II, III, T1 & T2+
>> - installing from CD & just swapping the kernel would be possible, as
>> I'm really interested in getting this tested & helping getting this into
>> official images.
> Yes, this kind of testing would be highly appreciated as I don't have access
> to all kinds of SPARCs. The kernel packages above contain the fixes for all
> CPU types except for M7 but I have a separate test kernel for that.
>
> When reporting back, please reply to the separate messages on the kernel
> mailing list thread and add your
>
> 	Tested-by: Robin Cremer <[email protected]>
>
> If you're not on the sparcspalinux kernel mailing list, you can import the
> thread by downloading the mbox file and opening it in the email client of
> your choice.
>
> See: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/
>
> Please add a Tested-by note for the individual machines. Thus, if you're
> testing on an UltraSPARC I or II, please reply to the UltraSPARC-I-specific
> patch, if you're testing on UltraSPARC III or IV, please reply to the
> UltraSPARC-III-specific patch.
>
> Keep in mind, that there are no CPU-specific implementations for all SPARC
> variants.
>
> We have:
>
> - UltraSPARC I
> - UltraSPARC III
> - Niagara 1
> - Niagara 2
> - Niagara 4
> - SPARC M7
>
> Thus, in order to test the UltraSPARC I code, you would need to test on UltraSPARC I
> or II, but not on UltraSPARC III or newer. Same applies to the Niagara machines,
> testing on Niagara 4 would trigger the Niagara 4 code, testing on Niagara 3 the
> Niagara 2 code and testing on Niagara 1 the Niagara 1 code.
>
> If you can, please test on everything you have.
>
>> Also, I have multiple early UltraSPARC III system (SunFire 280R) which
>> I'm unsure if it works with Linux at all (I seem to remember something
>> about the crossbar bus SMP architecture made them crash on early boot
>> and the FC-AL Disks are unusable...). Might test as well, if someone can
>> provide a prebuilt kernel.
> Let's focus on the machines first which are known to be supported as we would like
> to know first whether the patch series by Michael is okay and does not introduce
> any new regressions.
>
> Adrian
>